Stone Haven
Stone Haven is a fictional city, partially inspired by Markarth from TES Skyrim by Bethesda, but has nothing to do with the Elder Scrolls. Stone Haven, often simply called Haven, is a human settlement which is part of the Stone Haven Barony, which is held in vassalage by the City State of High-Cliff which in turn is part of the Empire. History Much history from the dawn of the Dwaven Race is lost, but evidence suggests that the ancestors of the currently living Earthling races originally created one of their under-cities in a lone small mountain that is situated in the middle of what is now known as Stone Haven Valley. From there, they mined the local mountains of the mountain range that formed the valley. Using their superior technology, they dug deep and found many riches, despite this, the Under-City of Stone Haven appears to have been a smaller and generally unimportant or at least insignificant Dwarven Settlement. The Dwarven Clan that held it had dug one of the deep-roads all the way to the Under-City, but no further roads lead away. The Dwarves were at war with the Elves, and while the Elves were generally less unified than the Dwarves, this particular Dwarven city appears to have stood on it's own, because it appears elves captured it without too much struggle. The Elves built a mighty keep on top of the very same mountain that the Dwaves had carved into their under-city, and originally it was generally assumed that the Dwarves there abandoned their city when the Elves came, taking measures to assure the elves would not find the hidden stone-keep underneath, as no evidence of the Elves ever using the Dwarven city below ever came to light, until archeologists studied the city, which they had reason to do because of one major inconsistency with the generally assumed truth, namely why all the Elven designed buildings that after hundreds and hundreds of years still stand, appear different from almost any other Elven building designs ever seen, and why they happen to appear quite similar to the building designs of the recently formed Surface Dwarves. While it's well known that human slave labourers worked in the mines, it was always assumed that this happened after the elves took over, but studies have made scholars reach the conclusion that the elves and dwarves lived in union in this particular city. While the elves provided labourers and magic, the dwarves provided knowledge and skill. Undoubtedly, they still maintained secrets from one-another, judging from the fact that the human slaves who later took over the city never discovered the dwarves, and the fact that the dwarves had mines they kept separately from the mines the humans worked, but Stone Haven might interestingly enough have been the closest thing to a peaceful co-existence between the Sapient species that existed back then. The humans that took over the Elven city formed into a proud tribe of fairly civilized people, who advanced their technology quickly, as with most other humans who rebelled against the elves, something that seems to have happened all over the continent where the elves kept humans enslaved. The tribes in the valley become one united tribe, one nation known as the People of Stone City, because their settlement was made entirely of stone, the humans having easily been able to continue building in the same style as it was them who did most of the building anyway. They had some sort of king who ruled from the elven castle, but the nation soon fell when the Empire took it, and an Imperial Nobleman was put in charge of the valley. When the empire eventually fell, his family remained in control of the entire valley and it's mining operations that were fairly modest at the time (believed to be only an iron mine as the Dwarven mines had not yet been discovered). The city had since been renamed Stone Haven, due to being so shielded and secluded, and the nobleman in charge at the time brandished himself as Lord of Stone Haven. He came to be known as the first Iron Lord, as civil war in the fallen Empire errupted and the need for Iron was great. He commissioned a great many armorers and weaponsmiths and sold to everyone who would buy, but remained neutral, and his children continued his legacy, making Stone Haven wealthy and well known. Many tried to take it from the Iron Lords, but this was no easy task, but eventually, the Empire reformed, and the then sitting Iron Lord wisely decided to join the Empire. He did so by joining a small tradesman union that joined the Empire as a province, thus maintaining his rule, despite being a vassal of a nearby city state. The Valley is small and the collective territory was renamed into a Barony, and the Iron Lords became the Iron Barons. They are still known for superior crafting and their iron trade. Naturally, the Dwarven Undercity was discovered at some point during this long (at least by human standards) period, and so were the Dwarven mines. The lords, through time discovered many precious metals and gems that they sealed away in a hidden tressure chamber inside the Dwarven Undercity, but this is a well guarded secret, though there are rumors and those rumors attract quite a few would be thieves and conquorers, having lead to Stone Haven having a very militarized culture. Culture Stone Haven is very well off despite being fairly small and having fairly few inhabitants, even in the farmland. The entire valley is smaller than most Baronies, and the city of Stone Haven itself is also fairly small. There are no villages in the entire area, and also only a few roads, the coastal road, the trade route and then the road to the forest. Apart from those, there are some roads that are less maintained. The roads are well guarded with watchtowers placed with a fair distance of one eachother along both the coast road and the trade-route, with small hamlets forming around the towers. All roads are patrolled by outriders, though none as frequently as the guarded routes, as there are stables and garrisons at every tower, making it possible for outriders to comfortably without camping equipment to patrol. The Baron of Stone Haven maintains a small but very well trained and even better equipped private army of Men-at-arms and Gendarms, he even has quite a few ships as he is also a merchant. The people of the Barony know they are a target because of their riches, and as such there is a very strong milita culture in the area. As one might imagine, an entire area of the city consists of smithies that produce either mass-produced standard weaponry and armor, or more specialized equipment, and there are also a renown combat academy in the city which trains, primarily Knights and other nobles in the art of using advanced weaponry. Many variants of existing armors and weapons have sprung from this very city.